Osteoarthritis is a major public health issue due to its impact in term of handicap. Moreover, Ageing of the world population and outbreak of obesity in industrialized and non-industrialized countries will dramatically increase its incidence in the next years. Regarded as a multi-factorial disease, today mechanistic and inflammatory theories are no more opposed but, on the contrary, are framed within the same continuum: osteoarthritis, inflammation and degeneration. In order to collect major information in a benchmark book on the fundamental aspects of this disease, internationally well-known authors, from multiple specialties, gathered to analyse, dissect and finally try to understand the secrets of a disease which should no more be regarded as the common and relentless result of ageing or of passive wear but much more as an active disease able to benefit from the best targeted pharmacological (anti-cytokines, inhibitors of signalling pathways, inhibitors of proteases, etc.) and non-pharmacological (cellular therapy, gene therapy, cartilage engineering etc.) therapies, current and future.

Update of these therapies goes through a sharp knowledge of the different pathophysiological mechanisms of osteoarthritis. Major new paradigms have emerged in this field in the very last years. For example, it is noteworthy that cartilage used to be the unique tissue involved in the OA process. But in this book, many chapters refer to novel findings on the role of other tissues like bone or synovial tissue which should be of critical importance for the degradative process of the OA joint. Another challenge refers to the possibility in the future to evaluate the potential severity of the disease in a single patient from the very early stage. The recent new advances in imaging and biomarkers detailed in this volume suggest that we are not so far from this capacity. These recent advances have been compiled in this monograph, that should captivate a large audience, scientists and clinicians.

F. Berenbaum, Elected President of OARSI